Our Studio Sunday today will look at the work space of Annette Messenger. Messenger has a varied studio practice that includes drawing and installation, and combinations of the two.

Messenger often uses India ink as a component in her works, sometimes creating drawings in her studio and sometimes drawing directly on the walls of a gallery. As the artist has said in an interview, she sometimes uses so much India ink for drawing that it clouds the windows in her studio!

In this photo the studio appears decently spacious – Messenger has a large desk on which her drawings are produced, and the floor is strewn with various materials including paper, bits of clothes, doll parts and other interesting detritus. The studio space is in a former garage in France, looking out onto a garden. Messenger is also known to use manipulated toys in her installation and sculpture art pieces. These are often parts of dolls, or plush toys. She sometimes orders parts of ventriloquist dummies from America. Perhaps the cabinet pictured here is full of toy parts waiting to be used in a sculpture. The walls of the studio are generously adorned with drawings in progress as well as photographs that might be used as part of an installation, or as reference and inspiration for other works.

Messenger was born in Berck, France, and now lives and works just outside of Paris. Her works tend to look at the way people project and alter their identities, by collecting, altering and remaking body parts from toys and photos. Her work has been shown and collected extensively throughout the art world.

About the author

Dallas Jeffs is the Editor of Artist Run Website's blog. She is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she studied Critical and Cultural Practices. She is passionate about talking and writing about art, and sharing that interest with others. In her studio practice she is a painter, but she considers herself an art writer and educator foremost. If you like art, books and culture with a science fiction twist, check out Dallas' personal blog, HappySpaceNoises